Rosie recently visited the surgery due to a fast growing lump on her toe. After initial treatment for the lump no improvement was seen and the decision was made to amputate the toe and send the lump off for testing. Rosie has had a long recovery which has needed substational care with dressing changes every few days on her foot due to excellent care from her owners, Rosie is nearly back to her normal self and is managing fine on her 3 toes. Dogs are digitigrade animals, meani

Scooby a very cheeky rabbit visited us recently due to a sore leg. Scooby had to have an X-ray on his leg to see if there was any obvious broken bones or fractures. X-raying a rabbit can be very challenging due to their size, and easily stressed nature. X-rays are like light except they can travel through the body. For an x-ray a rabbit will lies under the x-ray machine which sends a beam of x-rays through the rabbit’s body onto a photographic plate. When the film is develope

❄️Take care when walking your pets on snow and ice. Rock salt which is used to grit the roads during icy conditions can be toxic to some animals, Ingestion can result in a high blood sodium concentration which can cause thirst, vomiting and lethargy, and in severe cases there is a risk of convulsions and kidney damage. Prolonged contact during long walks can lead to chemical burns, dryness, and painful cracking of the pads. Always wash paws as soon as you get home to prevent

Meet Rosie who recently decided to start a fight with some chickens! Rosie came off worse for wear when a piece of hay became embedded in her eye causing an ulcer. Rosie had a dye called fluorescein placed into her eye the dye sticks to the damaged areas of the eye and shows how far the corneal ulcer extends, by highlighting luminous green under a florescent blue light. Cats have better night vision than us humans but the basic structure is much the same. Because the eye is

Alfie visited us recently having been unwell and off his food, on ultrasound Steven our vet could see some areas of concern and a exploratory laparotomy was preformed. A mass could be seen on the spleen so a splenectomy was preformed. A splenectomy is the surgical procedure performed to remove the spleen from the body. The spleen is an oblong organ that sits just below the stomach, in the middle of the abdomen. Comparatively, on a size-by-size basis, it is much bigger in dogs

Meet Nelly a Dwarf Hamster who visited the surgery due to a sore back leg. Nelly needed to have an X-ray to see if there was any damage to her bones, we would usually sedate or give patients a general anesthetic to position them for X-ray Nelly was far to small for this. A cardboard tube was used to place tilly in and wrapped around her so she could not move allowing us to x-ray her. Nelly was very brave and no broken bones were found Nelly is now home recovering well. Did yo

Jaz came to visit us due to a very swollen ear. The ear had filled with blood causing an aural hematoma. An aural hematoma is a clot of blood that collects between the skin and the cartilage of a pet’s ear flap. It’s typically caused by overly aggressive ear scratching or head shaking that results from an ear infection. Dogs and cats can both suffer ear hematomas, though dogs (particularly those prone to skin allergies and ear infections) are more prone to them. Surgical rep

Cooper recently visited us as he had sliced his tongue whilst playing with another dog. Cooper had to have a general anaesthetic and quite a few sutures placed in his tongue. Did you know a dogs tongue is like a radiator, a water-lapper, a healer of wounds, a food conveyor, a register of tastes, a texture sensor, and a wet equivalent of a dog's handshake. A dog's tongue has more responsibilities than any other part of the dog anatomy -- excluding the brain. And oddly enough,

Diabetes is a disease that is on the increase in dogs and cats, over the last few weeks we have diagnosed an increasing number of cases. Diabetes mellitus in pets is very similar to that in humans, it occurs when the body cannot produce enough insulin (type 1) or the body no longer responds to the insulin it produces (type 2), this insulin is vital for converting sugar in the blood to useable energy within the body. Diagnosis of diabetes is easy, with a simple blood and urin

Bernie the Bernese Mountain dog visited us with a Hot spot on his leg. A hot spot is officially known as Moist Dermatitis, hot spots are found anywhere on the body and can increase in size very quickly. Your dog will experience them as itchy and sometimes painful patches and will often try to soothe hot spots with scratching, licking or biting. Treatment for a hot spot is to : Clip and clean – clipping the fur around your dog’s hot spot will allow air to reach it and speed up

Belle visited the surgery for her 2nd vaccination and scabs on her skin. Tom our veterinary surgeon preformed skin scrapes and hair plucks on Belle to establish the cause of the skin issues. skin scraping is the process of removing some skin cells to look at under the microscope. It helps identify some skin parasites, especially mites, and sometimes fungal conditions like ringworm. A blade is rubbed across the skin and the sample of cells and skin is mixed with oil and prepar

Lightning the ferret visited the surgery this week.. Female ferrets (jills) come into season (oestrus) in spring and summer (March to September) as the day length begins to increase. They will stay in season either until mated or until day length reduces again. During this time they are subject to high levels of the hormone oestrogen. This can suppress the production of red blood cells and lead to a life threatening anaemia. Female ferrets can die from the subsequent anaemia

Be careful when using a cooling mat and make sure your pet is supervised at all times. Naughty Ted decided to chew his new cooling mat and eat the contents, the contents of this cooling mat were not toxic but swelled when they came into contact with water. Ted was made to vomit the contents of the mat up so it would not cause an obstruction. Every cooling mat is different and the contents vary if your pet does eat a cooling mat please contact the surgery. #dogcoolingmat #cool

Ariel the ferret recently visited us due to a lump growing on her back, after further investigation it was decided the lump must be removed due to the rapid rate of growth and ulceration. Ferrets have to be monitored very closely during an anaesthetic as they can develop hypothermia, heat pads and bubble wrap are used to help keep them warm during surgery. With any lump removal the veterinary surgeon must make sure they obtain good margins, Lumpectomy margins are the rim of n

Bella visited us for intermittent lameness on her back leg, after an initial investigation of X-rays at our Adlington branch, Bella was diagnosed with medial patella luxation. Bella was than transferred to our Standish Orthopaedic site. Medial patella luxation is a condition where the patella (knee-cap) does not stay in its normal position in the groove on the end of the femur (thigh bone) and will pop-out, or luxate, to the medial (inside) surface of the knee.  For most cats

If you are thinking of breeding your own pet it's important to make sure you are fully aware of the complications, costs and work involved. It's no small task having a litter of puppies or kittens and involves a considerably large amount of work. We always advice clients to make sure they plan and save for the worst and hopefully they have a smooth pregnancy and delivery. The main cause of veterinary surgeons preforming emergency caesareans is dystocia of the pup: Dystocia

Sadly today we have seen a case of heat stroke please be cautious in the sun. Make sure to walk your dogs in the evening or early morning to prevent heat stroke. If the pavement is to hot to touch its too hot for your pets paws. DO NOT WALK YOUR DOGS IN BETWEEN 11am -7PM Make sure your rabbit hutches are in the shade, a damp towel can be used to keep the hutch cool. Signs of heatstroke in dogs include: Panting, which increases as heatstroke progresses. Drooling, salivating. A

Luna presented at the practice with a corneal ulcer in her eye caused by extra eyelashes rubbing on the eye surface. Luna was diagnosed with Distichiasis this is where an extra row of hairs which can be long and stiff grow on the eyelid and irritate the eye, resulting in a corneal ulcer. The severity of the problem depends on how stiff the hairs are, how long they are, where they’re located, and how many extra hairs there are. Luna had the eye lashes removed and diathermy was

The object was identified with an X-ray in the small intestine causing a partial obstruction, Zoe was taken to theatre where it was surgically removed. Foreign objects swallowed by animals can cause a partial or complete intestinal obstruction and are one of the most common indications for intestinal surgery. If a foreign body becomes lodged over a period of time then there may be serious complications. Clinical signs of obstruction include dehydration, vomiting, anorexia, we

This stray cat was brought in by its new owner due to a nasal discharge, breathing difficulties and eye issues. After examination it was found to have a whole in the roof of its mouth. This called cleft palate. A cleft palate typically looks like what it sounds like: a hole in the roof of the mouth. That hole may be larger or smaller and it may vary in location (closer to the front or back of the mouth), but most are readily identifiable at birth. Some cleft palate defects ma